Abstract Details: Metallic helices with a characteristic helical pitch (P) in the micro- or nano-scale have been proposed for diverse chirality-related primary applications. However, limited development of nanofabrication techniques leads to P >20 nm; molecules are too small in size to effectively perceive the helical chirality, and such the dimensional mismatch will substantially prohibit the development of those applications. In this talk, I will device a method to tackle this fundamental problem. Glancing angle deposition with fast substrate rotation is performed to produce chiral nanoparticles (CNPs) that have sub-10-nm P (as small as 2 nm) and are composed of controllable plasmonic materials and helicity. CNPs are used to induce enantiospecific adsorption of molecules, mediate the enantiopreferential photocyclodimerization of 2-anthracenecarboxylic acid, and markedly enhance optical activity of chiral molecules in roughly one order of magnitude. These studies will pave the way to developing CNPs for significant chirality-related applications, such as heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis and sensitive detection of absolute configuration of enantiomers that is practically desired by the production of single-enantiomer drugs.

About the Speaker: Dr. Z. F. Huang completed his PhD from Arizona State University (US, 2007) and postdoctoral studies from University of Alberta (Canada, 2009), and then joined Department of Physics at Hong Kong Baptist University as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015. Dr. Huang contributed to two book chapters, and published his studies in Nat. Nanotechnol., Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem., Adv. Mater., Nano Lett., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Small, Nanoscale, and so on. Dr. Huang was presented Outstanding Research Achievement (APSMR, 2017 and 2018), and the Prof. Rudolph A. Marcus Award 2016. He is serving as an Associate Editor for Science Advances Today and Science Letters Journal (Cognizure), and funded a spin-off company to commercialize nanomaterial-based medical devices for cell replacement therapy.